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Light Work announces new exhibition 'The Other New York: 2012'

Light Work has announced the exhibition “The Other New York: 2012,” featuring the photographic work of Sarah Averill, Bang-Geul Han, Mark McLoughlin, Jan Nagle and Matthew Walker. This exhibition is part of a communitywide, multi-venue biennial exhibition that is the result of a major collaboration among 14 art organizations in Syracuse. This ambitious project aims to highlight the rich talent of artists across upstate New York, with a special focus on Central New York and the surrounding counties.

The exhibition runs Aug. 15-Oct. 19. A gallery reception will be held Sept. 13 from 5-7 p.m.

Sarah AverillFor one evening in May 2011, artist, physician and community activist Averill turned a laundromat on the north side of Syracuse into a gallery and lively community event. The Lodi Street Laundromat is located in the heart of the north side, a neighborhood largely populated by immigrant families from Liberia, Somalia, Sudan, Burma, Bhutan, Nepal and Vietnam. While in medical school, Averill sought to keep her creative spirit alive by walking the streets of the north side and interacting with and photographing this diverse community. Averill’s background in fine arts and urban planning came together in this project as she set up her camera and printer at the laundromat for a “Free Friends and Family Day,” where patrons and neighbors could have their portraits taken while doing their laundry. These events culminated in the installation at the laundromat of photographs of hundreds of immigrant families and a reception with food and music provided by families from Burma and Somalia. For this exhibition, Averill has reinstalled her photos at Light Work, and they continue to provide a true celebration of community.

Bang-Geul HanHan works in a variety of media, including watercolor, digital video, photography, performance and computer programming. Her work responds to the experience of living in Korea and the coinciding explosion of new media and communication platforms such as blogs, social media and reality TV. She is interested in exploring, “how we (and especially myself) engage with these new forms and how the contemporary narratives are constructed from these disembodied environments where conflicting impulses of public and private, anxiety and desire are blurred.”

Mark McLoughlinMcLoughlin’s series of portraits, “Stolen Souls, Willing,” was created using a large pinhole camera without a lens, constructed by the artist, which accommodates a 16 inch by 20 inch paper negative. As each model sat for the 15-minute exposure time required, they could not help but contribute to the destruction of their likeness, as perfect stillness is impossible and the long exposure time records every movement. But within this process the artist also discovered his models left behind what he describes as a notion of the spirit, reminding him of the belief that the act of taking someone’s photograph would steal that person’s soul.

Jan NagleFollowing the deaths of both her father and cat in the spring of 2010, multi-disciplinary artist Nagle began to take weekly drives through the landscape of Niagara County and Lake Ontario. The open road provided her with a way to filter her memories and process her grief. In her words, “Personal loss is a marker; from such a point, we either suck up inside ourselves and die a little bit, or we pivot into a new period of our lives. Either way, there is a time of mourning, followed some way, someday, by grace, by acceptance, and ultimately by celebration or tribute.” “Vaulted” is a series of 20 TTV (through the viewfinder) photographs, which were created during this period.

Matthew Walker“Recollection” is a series of photographs by Walker taken at the State University of New York College of Brockport and in the community of Brockport, N.Y. The project was funded in part by a commission for the college’s 175th Anniversary celebration and also through an artist residency at Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester. Although Walker is an alumnus of the college, he stresses the photographs are not a record of his personal experience, but “speak to the potential and limitations of memory, and acknowledges that location stands as a testament to the passage of time.”

“TONY: 2012” is organized by the Everson Museum of Art in collaboration with ArtRage—The Norton Putter Gallery, Community Folk Art Center, Erie Canal Museum, Light Work, Onondaga Historical Association, Punto de Contacto/Point of Contact, Rosamond Gifford Zoo, Stone Quarry Hill Art Park, SUArt Galleries, Urban Video Project, The Warehouse Gallery, City of Syracuse and XL Projects. Major funding is provided by The Central New York Community Foundation through the John F. Marsellus Fund.